


Love Triangles Are Exhausting And Kind of Painful

by orphan_account



Category: The Office (US)
Genre: Blood, Comfort, F/M, M/M, Nosebleeds, Punching, Violence, from pam to jim, nice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-16
Updated: 2015-01-16
Packaged: 2018-03-07 20:37:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3182330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Roy beats up Jim.  That's pretty much all there is to say on the subject.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love Triangles Are Exhausting And Kind of Painful

You never really intended for it to get this far, but then again, you never really intended for it to go any amount of distance. It takes you a minute to really get back into focus, the world is spinning and your head is swimming in the entirely opposite direction and you think that, maybe, this could have all been easily avoided had you actually taken up Dwight's offer to train you in martial arts.

But you didn't, and you have very little skill when it comes to combat, so when Roy slugged you in the face, of course you would take it blindly and end up on your ass.   
"Just wanna talk my ass," You say into your hand as it tries in vain to stop the blood flow from your nose. Your quip doesn't go unnoticed, because now Roy is grabbing you by the collar and pulling you to your feet. You want to protest and tell him you don't think you can stand just yet, but it doesn't look like you'll have to be your own support right now because he's holding you against the cold, brick wall of the office. His face is twisted into something terrifying, he looks generally angry at you. Like he hates you.   
The feeling is definitely requited.

"You make too many jokes, cocksucker."

You want to snort at that, you want to grin in his direction and spit out another sarcastic retort, because that's your nature and that's how you deal with things. With jokes. But you don't, and you try to match his anger, but you can't with all the blood running down your chin. You wipe at it with the back of your hand, dropping the red-knuckled hand back to your side. You wish you could tell people it wasn't your blood. 

You smeaered the blood on your face, the dark red spilling over your lips now, your cheek a streak of red. You can taste it suddenly, only slightly. You almost forgot about the metallic smell.

"What did you want to talk about?" You say slowly, your eyes never leaving his. You want to look away really, really bad, but you can't. You press your lips into a tight line, your mind fluttering back into memories of the words "showing your teeth is a show of submission," or something batshit insane like that. You never thought you would subconsciously tally that under things to remember.

"What the fuck do you think?" Roy barks. His eyes are wild. Like a dog, you think, and suddenly all you can picture is the man eating out of a dish at Pam's feet. You would definitely choose that would the oppurtunity ever present itself.

Pam. There's a name that should be floating in your head right now. That is who he wants to talk about, after all.  
"What about her?" You almost feel like you shouldn't have worded that quite so particularly.

His reply bursts out before you can even add the question mark. "What the fuck is your deal with her? Back off!"

"I'm her co-worker," is what you settle on saying.

"Bullshit!"

Well, okay. That doesn't exactly make sense because you're all co-workers, technically. It's written on his face, because suddenly Roy is glowering.

"You know what the fuck I meant," he growls.

"Yeah," you grunt defensively. "You meant that you think I'm her fuckbuddy or something." You realize a little to late that that sounded a lot more snappy than you indended.   
There's two consecutive collisions to your head, and the world blanks out into whiteness for a fleeting moment long enough to make you dizzy, your knees melting beneath you. You feel Roy hoist you up a little more as you droop.

He comes back into focus and his lips are moving, but you can't hear what he's saying over the sound of your heart beating in your ears. It's loud and fast and thumping away at your ribcage so hard that you think it'll explode and drown Roy in your blood. It's a vivid, grotesque thought that lingers until you can finally hear what he's trying to get through to you.

"...ortherfucker, are you listening to me?"

"What?"

You see that your answer enrages him and you brace for impact, but the punch never comes. What seems like forever passes, and you finally let out the breath you didn't realize was trapped in your chest. Your heart starts beating again, too, and your hands aren't so numb. He just glares at you.

"Can you hear me?" Roy asks, as if he understood the steps to losing your face-being-bashed-in virginity that was a lot more painful process to lose than just exploring your first sexual experience. 

You nod coherently once. Suddenly, you feel small. He seems to be towering over you. You kind of wish someone would come looking for the two of you, out here behind the office, but you know that it's unlikely. Maybe Pam will, but you somehow doubt she'll be coming down soon. You pray she'll wander down here eventually.

"How long have you two been fooling around behind my back?"

You think that's probably the shortened version, because the first time around you're certain you read the word fuck on his lips maybe three times.  
You sift through a lot of answers, but none seem to suffice. You can't think of an exact date for when you started liking her. But you're sure that's not what he meant, because he's implying that what you had for Pam was a two-person tango.

"We... Never?"  
"What?"

You search for more words, but somehow your vocabulary has been submerged in a shredding machine. You can't find the right words right now for anything.  
Apparently something's wrong, because Roy looks a little startled. But it's replaced by anger as he shakes you violently abruptly. It was to get your attention, and he did, because now you're attetive again and you can understand him thoroughly. You think maybe he just pulled you out of a concussion, but that's not a plausible thing to happen, is it?

"You're the reason we're not getting married, right?" He's talking through his teeth. You get the feeling that he's not being very submissive, though. Well. There are exceptions to everything, you think.

This time you're quiet by choice. You don't know the answer, but in a way you do. In a way, you know that it's your fault, that if she never met you then they'd be happy together. Probably. Maybe. Roy was an asshole by nature, so maybe it was only time before they fell apart? You can't decide which one is more likely, though you'd prefer the latter.

"I don't know," you say. 

He just frowns for a minute. "Who else would have caused it?" He finally says. Says because he's not really asking. It's more of an accusation that you can barely duck under. 

But the reply comes easily.

"You."

"Me?" He scoffs, as if that couldn't be the reason.

"You're a dick." Probably not the best answer, because he looks like he wants to hit you again. "You treat her like shit," you continue, "Hell, you told her she shouldn't follow her   
dream because it wouldn't lead anywhere." He seems to sort of register what you said, because the tension falls from his shoulders. "I'd leave you," you tack on. You're not sure why you did, but it seemed appropriate.

"Shut up," he retorts after brief condsideration. You think maybe he tucked that thought into his pocket, but you're sure he's not going to thank you for passing notes in class. Oh well.

"Well?" You narrow your eyes at him. You're suddenly aware of the sting in your jaw. He got you good, that's for sure. At least he was kind enough to not punch you in the nose again.

Suddenly, he lets go of you, and he's stepping back. He glares at you for some time, but it seems like you won. Verbally. You lost physically, that much is certain, because as he walks away wordlessly, and as soon as he's out of sight, you stumble a little and have to catch yourself on the wall. You spit what tastes like snot out of your mouth, but it's red so you don't know what to call it. You turn away, standing straight and taking a deep breath. You think you should go inside, but you slide down the wall instead and sit there in the dirt for a moment.

You can really feel it now that the initial shock has drained from your system, leaving you a puddle of anger and semi-humilititated grime. Your body aches and your eyes sting, it takes you a few minutes to realize there's tears pouring from the brims of your eyes. You blink away the tears, but they keep coming, and you're not sure if you're crying because of the pain in your head that's straddling the line between migrain and exhaustion or because you miss Pam. Maybe it's both. Maybe you're just upset in general.   
Silence drags on for a long time and your mind is drifting with the clouds. After you count the clouds three times, footfalls catch your ears. Your head rolls to the side, and your eyes are met by the only sight that had been clouding your head for the past thirty minutes. At first she smiles, but when she sits next to you it's gone. The smile didn't look too real anyways, her eyes are rimmed red. She hands you a box of wet wipes. You're not sure if they're for your blood or her snot. Tears. You meant tears. 

"Hi," you say, turning your eyes to the box. You yank out a handful of wipes and rub at your nose.

"Hey." She sounds stressed. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," you lie, wiping at your bloodstache. That's what you've decided to call the blood on your upper lip.

"No, you're not."

You smile at her, and she smiles at you, because it's reassuring even if it's half-assed.

"No, I'm not," you agree. "But neither are you."

She just nods. You want to lean in and kiss her, again, but you know she wouldn't want to kiss you. Not because it's the wrong thing to do, or because it would twist a twinge in her chest, but more because you're still covered in blood stains. 

You think she wants to kiss you, too, but instead she leans into you, and you feel her give your shoulder a kiss. It sends shivers down your spine, but you try to pass that off as pain from your jaw shooting into the rest of your nerves. She gives you too many butterflies for otherwise to be fair.  
"I love you," you say finally. You're not sure why you said it. You're not sure you should have said it, you realize, because the silence is crossing over into awkward. Or maybe that's just you? You want to apologize, but when your lips part, her voice fills the air instead.

"I love you, too."

You smile, and you feel her smile into your shoulder.

**Author's Note:**

> drabbles. mmm yea. tell me whatchu thought !


End file.
